It Takes a Starship to Raise a Child
by Eris Van Hellsing
Summary: Upon entering Star Fleet Academy, James Tiberius Kirk begins to reconnect with his mother at the request of his sponsor, Christopher Pike. After four months of once-a-week meetings, the two have grown a lot closer, close enough that Winona allows her son to meet someone. Someone very special who changes the young man's life. McSpirk is main pairing Warnings inside
1. Prologue

**This idea just kinda entered my head and wouldn't go away no matter how hard I tried. The cuteness of it, well, it's just plain adorable. This story will have some darker themes in it and will touch on Tarsus, abuse (domestic, child, and sexual), alcohol, violence, torture, and kidnapping, Just a warning… But, overall, this is meant to be a sweet little fic about our favorite Enterprise trio plus my little OC. Yup, this is McSpirk. Be prepared for cuteness, grief, family, and all the things in between. And don't worry those of you reading my other fic, this is updated on Saturday, so my Hetalia fic will go on.**

Prologue

James Tiberius Kirk straightened his jacket as he waited for his mother to arrive. His mother had asked him to forgo his usual Cadet uniform he had taken to wearing to his once-a-week reconnecting meetings with her in favor of civilian wear at least this one time.

"_There's someone special I want you to meet!"_

This had all started four months ago when Pike, his sponsor, had begged him to try and meet up with his mother upon starting at the Academy. His mom had retired from Star Fleet shortly after he had left the house to stay with his Step-Father and had tried several times to contact and apologize to him for not being there when he was younger, but when you are running around Iowa taking odd jobs and staying in motels, that's kind of hard to do. When she finally found out her baby boy had followed in his father's footsteps and joined Star Fleet, she had pestered Pike until he pestered Jim about meeting up with her.

The first few times had been awkward, but Jim had found that he was a lot more like his mother than he thought and had even grown to think of her as his actual mother, not just the woman who gave birth to him. The two had finally exchanged phone numbers and talked every few days or so, checking up on each other and the like. It alarmed Jim to see bruises occasionally appear on his mom, and he began noticing the ones she tried to hide. Several times, he asked her why she didn't leave that asshole Frank, when it was clear she was being abused. Scratches, bruises, and once a broken limb all appeared, but every time he asked, she simply smiled sadly and told him he didn't understand.

He waited patiently outside their usual diner, hoping that she would appear soon with whomever it was she wanted him to meet. The sound of her old pickup truck (practically ancient, but she couldn't afford better) met his ears and he got up off the bench to meet her. She rushed out of it ran to hug him. "Aw Jimmy! Look at you, all handsome. I bet you have to shove the girls off with a stick," she said, laughing. This was her usual greeting, but she usually ended up taking pictures of him in his Cadet Reds. Winona Kirk brushed a stray piece of hair out of her son's face before giving the traditional Kirk grin.

It was then he felt a tug on his jeans and looked down to the thing that would change his life. A skinny little girl with mid-length dark blonde, almost light brown, hair pouted up at him, blue eyes almost shining with glee and a dusting of freckles on her cheeks. She rose up her arms, silently demanding to be held. Her light blue T-Shirt and dark blue overalls made her look that much more adorable.

Jim Kirk raised an eyebrow at his mother, who had that shit-eating grin on her face before picking up the small girl, who was kicking out her white sneakers as she went, almost getting his groin. The three went inside and got their usual table.

"And who might you be?" Jim asked the little girl as she colored all over the kid's menu. She grinned (just like his mom too) and said quietly, "My name's Jamie!"

His mother smiled sweetly and petted the little girl's hair. "Tell him how old you are, sweetie."

The girl held out her entire left hand and right thumb. _Six… That was about a year after I left. I wonder…_

"I know what you're thinking, Jimmy. She's your half-sister."

And then it all made sense. Why his mother had yet to leave Frank, even though it was obvious that he was abusing her; why she wanted to reconnect.

"I'm not asking you to watch out for her, Jimmy. I just thought you should be able to know her. I realized I didn't raise you like a mother should. I left you and your brother to that bastard, but I can't leave her. I can't even divorce him; he has enough influence in Riverside Court that he would get Jamie. I just thought you should know…"

He looked upset. "Was it…?"

Winona glanced to the side at her daughter. "Honey, why don't you go over there and talk to the man at the counter? Then you can pick out a dessert for him to get you after you eat."

Jamie smiled. "Okay!" Then she hopped off her mother's lap and began talking to Ted, the owner.

"Jimmy, you gotta understand. After you left and I retired, Frank began to hurt me. Probably deserved it after all I left you two to-" ("Mom! No you don-")

She shook her head, stopping him from speaking. "I talked to him about divorce, finally. Then… that night he was drunk and... He more or less forced himself on me. I was too scared to fight back and he forgot to use a condom. Or, at least I think he did. Soon after I found out I was pregnant. I tried so much. I didn't want to bring a child into this kind of life! But, every time I went to get an abortion, I thought about how much I missed you and Sam. I was selfish and let her get brought into this world anyway. You can pretty much guess the rest."

Jim nodded sadly, understanding the influence his stepfather had on people. The influence his stepfather had once had on him. A hand reached over and grabbed his, clutching at his like it was a lifeline. _She really has gotten a lot frailer over the years…_

"You gotta promise me, Jimmy. If anything happens to me, you won't leave her with that man."

He looked at his mother, the hope in her eyes and the worry that accompanied it. The remorse, the grief, the despair, all of it conveyed in one look.

"I promise, mom."


	2. Rabbit Heart

**Just starting and I've already got so many followers and encouraging results… No pressure or anything. Man, now I'm worried that I'll write really crappy and disappoint everyone. Also, for those of you who may want to know, this is still McSpirk, but Gaila does play a prominent role as one of the first (but not last) motherly roles that Jamie and Joanna encounter. All in all, there will be about five kids on the Enterprise, but the rest are going to be male and they won't have nearly as a big a role to play. They will also come in much later… as in one will probably come in a few months into their five year mission.**

**Thanks to TheGirlWhoImagined, didydid, xlunasxgrisx, Forgotten dragon, lovelessblackinu, PoseurMuch, LadyTygerEyez, and Selena Alice Peyton Booth for following my story. Thanks to LadyTygerEyez and YuukaSora for favoriting it.**

**Thank you TheGirlWhoImagined, xlunasxgrisx, and PoseurMuch for reviewing my story. I'll work hard to meet all you guys' expectations, even if it kills me. Hopefully, it won't**

Rabbit Heart

_The looking glass, so shiny and new  
How quickly the glamour fades  
I start spinning, slipping out of time  
Was that the wrong pill to take?_

Jim sat at the dining room table working on his paper for Interspecies Ethics, hearing the giggles in the background near an open PADD. Once again, he found himself exceedingly grateful for Gaila. With Bones gone and him busy trying to work four years of academy courses into three, the two roommates needed someone to watch the "Terrible Duo", especially after Bones got full custody of Joanna from Jocelyn.

It still surprised him today that a woman like Jocelyn could have the audacity to neglect a little girl like Joanna for her numerous boyfriends. Sure, it wasn't abuse, but children need their parents just as much as they need food; he knew that from experience.

The first time Jim actually let Bones come with him to meet his mother, at much insistence from Bones who felt it was within his right as Jim's roommate and doctor to meet his family, Bones had fell instantly in love with little Jamie. The sullen and grouchy doctor softened up to the little girl like "butter in a 21st century microwave", much to the delight of the Kirk family. Soon after, Winona was asking Doctor Leonard McCoy to come to every meeting and Jamie had taken to calling him Uncle Bones (much to said doctor's chargrin). Then Jocelyn went away on vacation with one of her boyfriends (they couldn't remember which) and asked the Leonard watch little Joanna. When the little girls met, it was best friendship at first sight, the two of them acting as if they had known each other forever.

It actually disappointed Jim and Winona that they hadn't recognized signs of neglect earlier than they had, but in their defense, Joanna was such a happy and sweet girl that it was already difficult to figure out things that bothered her. Patience being not much of a virtue that was ever strong with the Kirk household (whether you joined by birth or marriage), the two demanded that Leonard go to court. He, being the grouchy, recently divorced, Southern doctor he was, was reluctant to go head-to-head once more with his wife, especially because it would mean a lot of pain for Joanna. It took quite a bit of convincing before they finally managed to show him that: no, it's not going to get any better.

It took around four months before the plea actually managed to go through the bureaucratic red tape. A cadet and a doctor no less was considered very valuable to Star Fleet and they didn't want him being distracted after all. It only went through because he promised that, regardless of the final decision on the case, he would volunteer at the Star Fleet clinic near the academy for so many hours a week to prove his loyalty (thus his absence from the present scene). After they had a few testimonies (one being from one of Jocelyn's boyfriends no less), the case was easily won. So, they now had full custody of a little nine year old, but what's Jamie doing there?

Frankly, Jim wanted to know the same thing. It wasn't that he didn't absolutely love and adore his little sister; no, not that. It was that his mother had been sending her to them more and more lately, for longer lengths of time. This, of course, gave cause for concern.

It had started before the case, when little Joanna was still staying with them a little out of every month. A few times Winona had sent her daughter to stay with them during the times she knew Joanna was there, this didn't always happen, but she tried. Afterwards, Bones tried to schedule Joanna's visits when he knew that Jamie was coming, but that's not important right now. After the case was won, Winona sent Jamie to stay with them for a month… then another… then another… then two more, and so on. Jim was… worried to say the least.

Then there was Gaila. Gaila was a lot of things to Jim: best female friend, fuck buddy, older sister figure, and now babysitter. Not his babysitter of course, although he occasionally suspected that Bones asked for her to watch over him as well as the girls. When he first joined the Academy, before he even met Jamie, he had been so overwhelmed with work that he couldn't find time to relax, let alone engage in his previous life of promiscuity. On a night that allowed for a brief respite he went to a nearby bar and met the odd, yet refreshing, ginger Orion Gaila. The two hit it off immediately and retreated to his apartment. This happened for a few weeks, and the two gradually got to know each other as friends. They agreed that with Academy life was too difficult to find a new partner every night and decided to become friends-with-benefits.

When Gaila realized that Bones had gotten to meet his mother and not her, she wormed her way into meeting her anyway, despite Jim's protests. His mother had been shocked, apparently under the impression that he and Leonard were together (after that Gaila called them the "old married couple" every time they argued). At least he didn't have to tell his mom he was bi. Gaila had been just as active in the court case for Joanna as the rest of them. The two little girls called her Auntie Gaila now and she treated them like her own. The only problem with that? When the girls were there that meant little to no sex for Jim which meant he was more stressed than ever. Still, they managed.

Speaking of Gaila and the girls, they were currently huddled around a PADD that Gaila had equipped with some shows from Disney to entertain them. Frankly, Jim grew up on reruns that Frank left on and saw some of the things now compared to what they were in the 22nd century… Disney sucked. He heard that it had been that bad since the beginning of the 21st, but the girls loved it, so he had to be a good boy and deal with it.

Just as he was writing about the importance of ethics even on shore leave, a small hand clutching a sheet of yellow colored paper pushed its way onto the table. It scooted and slithered, knocking over the salt shaker, until it was in front of Jim and the body attached to it was hanging off the table. Laughing, he stood up and picked up the blonde girl, swinging her around before settling her in his arms. "Whatcha got Jammy?"

"My name's Jamie!" the little girl pouted and she pulled up the picture she drew for him to see. "Lookie what I got Jimmy! It's us!" she shouted.

Sure enough, on that yellow paper was Gaila, Jim, and Bones in their cadet reds, Joanna and Jamie in overalls with paper and crayons in their hands, and Winona with a bowl and a spoon, crowned with little flowers. The childish nature of the drawing and the innocence that it displayed from his younger sister made Jim's smile widen… until he saw the last person on the page. An angry man in jeans and flannel, bald with a busy beard, and bearing a black strap, which could only be a belt, and some sort of bottle. Upon a second glance of the pictures he saw a few things that he had originally taken to be dark smudges from a child accidently making a mark on his mother. _Bruises…_ Vaguely he remembered what Bones had once told him when he said he didn't want Joanna to be in another fight between him a Jocelyn.

"_Children are strangely perceptive. They may not quite understand what's going on, but the always see and they always know."_

He gently set the girl down, just as Leonard walked through the door, tired from volunteer work. "Hey Joanna! You're a strong ten-year-old girl, yes? Can you watch Jamie for a minute?"

Both Gaila and Bones gave Jim a perplexed look, not quite understanding why the overprotective older brother would leave Jamie without adult care for even a moment. He motioned with his finger to join him in the bedroom. Leonard, of course, immediately assumed the worst, but Gaila seemed to figure out that he had something important to say.

Jamie stomped her foot the same time that Joanna said, "Yes, Uncle Jim!"

"But Jimmy… I'm eight! I can take care of myself!"

"It's only for a few minutes Jamie, I'll be back before you know it."

The little girl pouted, but returned to her friend to play with dolls and watch some more of the older shows. Jim went into the bedroom, Gaila and Bones following him. Before he shut the door, he heard Joanna worrying that they would be having a "grown-up discussion" which apparently involved a lot of yelling. As he locked the door, he couldn't help but cringe as he was once again reminded of Bones's words. "What's this about Jim?"

He sighed, "You know how we've been thinking that Frank has been more abusive than usual lately and that that's why Winona has been sending Jamie here."

Leonard quickly put two and two together. "Wait! She didn't say something… did she?"

"No… no." Jim waved off his friend.

"What happened?" Gaila asked. "It can't have too drastic; I was right there!"

Jim showed them the picture. "Jamie said this was of everyone… I didn't realize it at first, but I think she thinks it's normal now, or that those bruises belong there, or something. The only thing I know for sure is that she's noticing, probably has been for a while. We need to talk to mom about this."

Gaila looked just as shocked as Jim had felt; Leonard merely looked upset. "We knew this was bound to happen. I don't know if there's anything we can do, short of forcibly removing the both of them from Frank and with your mom being as fragile as she is right now, both mentally and physically, I don't know if that's a good option. We can't just take Jamie; that would probably make the abuse worse. Not to mention that divorce is out of the question because of the same reasons as the first one, and the fact that they would have nowhere to go and that the bastard has friends in the Riverside law system."

"What do you mean they would have nowhere to go?" asks Gaila, a little miffed.

"Well, it's not like we can afford anyone staying in our place, we're barely getting by as it is. And I doubt Uhura would want to help just anyone she came across let alone someone related to James T. Kirk," Jim retorted.

"Jimmy… You don't give her enough credit.""

"Still, even if she did. The three of us are busy enough and are barely paying rent. The only reason we can take care of Joanna and Jaie when they're here is Jocelyn paying child support and mom sending money from her cut of Frank's paycheck. Uhura has it just as bad as us, all that would fix is space."

"So…" Gaila began. "What are we going to do?"

Bones rubbed his temples, trying to massage the stress away. "For now, we're just gonna have to sit tight and hope for the best."

Almost year later, the best and the worst happened.

Winona Kirk was diagnosed with lung cancer, probably contracted from the copious amounts of second hand smoke she was subjected to on a way more than daily basis without any reprieve.

Jim, Bones, and Gaila had continued on it what ways they could to help out Jim and Jamie's mom: bringing food, taking her out of the house for a day, sending her what money they could, etc. Still, it wasn't enough to stop the abuse that man put her through, it was enough to get Jamie and Winona away from there, and it most certainly wasn't enough to stop her worsening condition. They had guessed long before it had happened that Winona was terminally ill, but "that bastard Frank" (as he became known) wouldn't take her to the hospital, instead spending money on alcohol, smoking, and gambling. The three ended up pooling what money they could to get her somewhere.

Strangely enough, the cancer proved to be a godsend. With his wife being the only case of lung cancer in a century in Riverside, Iowa, Frank had to stop the abuse from happening and work to make his environment medically and media friendly. He showered his wife with gifts, worked to make sure she was okay, and even allowed Jamie to stay with Jim so that "she would be safe" from the media. In reality, he probably was protecting his own image, sending his daughter away to make it look like he wanted to spare her from her mother's ailing hours.

It wasn't until the approaching end of the third year and the approaching third Kobiyashi Maru that ll three of them had been invited when they heard that it was killing her and there was nothing they could do. The three, not Frank, were at her bedside in her last moments. Her last words were telling them how grateful she was to them, how much she loved each of them, and forgiving Frank for all the harm he did.

For about a week after, all the media attention in Riverside was on the wailing Frank and his stoic daughter, who was never allowed to leave his side. Occasionally, James T. Kirk, Golden Boy and Kelvin Baby, popped up, but he was given a few weeks leave from the academy and spent most of his time hiding out in his dorm/apartment. No one bothered Gaila and Bones though, whose connection was unknown. It was later, when Jim went to see his sister the next week, that they noticed the dark bruises forming on Jamie's arms.

"Bones, we need to get her out of there."

**So, this is the first official chapter. This chapter and the next one are more on covering a great deal of time to set up the rest of the story, which takes place on the Enterprise. Mostly, the next chapter will cover the first Star Trek movie effects on Jamie's (and Joanna's) situation and them finally getting her away from Frank. Then the real real story begins!**


End file.
